JetHawks beat Quakes in 10 innings

Second game repeat of 1-0 victory

As if the Lancaster JetHawks' season-opening 1-0 victory over Rancho Cucamonga - the first one-run game in stadium history - wasn't enough on Thursday, the JetHawks duplicated the feat Friday. This time it took them 10 innings to turn away the Quakes.

Karl Thompson scored the game-winning run on an error in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the JetHawks their second victory of the season.

Neither wins nor runs have come easily thus far.

"All our players are thinking, `What the heck. We heard this was a run-producing park,' " JetHawks manager Rick Burleson said. "But tonight was so darn cold. It was as cold as any game I remember last year."

That cold, along with some outstanding pitching on both sides, has helped hold the two teams to a total of two runs in 19 innings.

If that isn't strange enough, The Hangar experienced its first rain delay in its 142-game history Friday. The tarp was used for the first time, and the game was delayed 45 minutes at the start.

Once the game did get going, what remained of the 2,667 paid attendance was treated to the second consecutive pitchers' duel.

Following Denny Stark's lead from Opening Night, left-hander Jason Bond was dominant early in the game. Bond allowed only one hit, one walk and one hit batsman in six shutout innings.

"After I saw the way (Stark) pitched, I wanted to go out and do it myself," Bond said. "I wanted to see what I could do."

Bond struck out 10, which was four short of the team record he set Aug. 8, 1997, in Visalia. Of Bond's 70 pitches, 48 were strikes.

Rancho Cucamonga's Brian Carmody was equal to the task. He struck out nine and allowed only one hit in five scoreless innings.

Both the Lancaster and Rancho Cucamonga bullpens continued what Bond and Carmody started. The teams combined for 27 strikeouts in the game.

The JetHawks had only six baserunners in the first nine innings, two of which reached on wild-pitch strikeouts. The Quakes had only five baserunners.

"Eventually this whole team is all going to warm up," JetHawks outfielder Anton French said. "But right now, none of us is swinging the bat real well."

Lancaster finally produced some offense in the bottom of the 10th.

Thompson got on base with one out when he was hit with a John Foran (0-1) pitch. He advanced to third when Matt Sachse sliced a shot down the line, just inside first base for a double.

"It was a good breaking ball down and in," Sachse said of the hit. "I wanted to get down on it, and fortunately it stayed fair."

Foran then issued an intentional walk to Ramon Vazquez to load the bases and set up a possible double play.

Foran got French to send a possible double-play bouncer toward first base, but Pete Paciorck couldn't come up with the ball, allowing Thompson to score the winning run uncontested.

"There was no pressure on me," French said. "I knew I could do it. I just wanted to concentrate and not let the cold get to me. . . Their first baseman had some pressure on him, because it was such a slow roller."

Kyle Kennison (1-0) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings to pick up the win. He was helped out in the top of the 10th by Sachse's sliding catch on a weak fly into right field for the second out of the inning.